William Kristol is saying on FOX right now that he has heard from within the Obama camp that Colin Powell will endorse Obama and deliver the Keynote instead of Mark Warner.  This was on the Cavuto show.

The magazine, that is.  Politico's Mike Allen has apparently been given a peek at a new article, by Joshua Green, based on scores of internal memos leaked from the Clinton campaign.

Mark Penn, the top campaign strategist for Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.), advised her to portray Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) as having a "limited" connection "to basic American values and culture," according to a forthcoming article in The Atlantic magazine.

The magazine reports Penn suggested getting much rougher with Obama in a memo on March 30, after her crucial wins in Texas and Ohio: "Does anyone believe that it is possible to win the nomination without, over these next two months, raising all these issues on him? ... Won’t a single tape of [the Reverend Jeremiah] Wright going off on America with Obama sitting there be a game ender?"

2
Number of armadillos living under Bugscuffle's new deck.

400
Appproximate number of holes dug in Bugscuffle's yard this year by armadillos.

8
Average number of episodes, per week, of The Andy Griffith Show viewed by Bugscuffle.

.4
Average number of hours, per month, Bugscuffle listens to satellite radio.

6.3
Average number of days, per week, that Bugscuffle mulls cancelling his satellite radio service.

I've decided it's time I got off my butt and did something to make our world a better place for us and our children.  I'm already 40, and I've done little with my life other than carping and criticizing people who enter the arena and become "proactive" in the case of human progress.  It's no longer enough to jeer from the "cheap seats" and blow raspberries.  My goal, my raison d'etre from now on, is to make you a better person altogether

I did.  And the reason I'm writing a diary about is is because I did pretty fecking good.

How well do you know your stuff?

Here:

Linky For Civics Quiz!

It's sixty multiple choice questions, so it takes 10-15 minutes, tops.

Be sure to come back and tell us how you did!  (Honor system, of course.)

NY Daily News:
Thursday, May 22nd 2008, 4:00 AM

Ted Kennedy has made clear to confidants that when his time is up, he wants his Senate seat to stay in the family - with his wife, Vicki.

Multiple sources in Massachusetts with close ties to the liberal lion say his wife of 16 years has long been his choice to continue carrying the family flame in the Senate. Kennedy won the seat in 1962; his brother John held it from 1953 to 1960.

"There's no question that he'd like Vicki to continue in his seat," said one Massachusetts Democrat with ties to the Camelot clan who spoke to Kennedy recently, before his health crisis.

The Cannes Film Festival got off to a lively start with Sean Penn, president of this year's jury, sounding off about US Presidential hopeful Barack Obama and the opening movie almost being upstaged by a bunch of performing pandas.

Linky!

Forget the performing Pandas!  Penn had an Important Message for the Little People Back Home!

At a press conference beforehand, the actor, an outspoken critic of the Bush administration, offered his views on the Democratic nomination race.

Asked if he would be joining other Hollywood A-listers in pledging support for Obama, Penn gave him a less than ringing endorsement and warned that he has an awful lot to live up to.

What's the matter with Minnesota?  What's the matter with Al Franken?  What's the matter with the Minneapolis Star-Tribune?

WTF is going on up there?

Al!! What have you done??!!

DFL U.S. Senate candidate Al Franken, front-runner in the race to unseat Republican U.S. Sen. Norm Coleman, owes $70,000 in back taxes in 17 states where he earned income going back to 2003.

Political warfare need not be all long faces and bitter words.  It can also be fun!  And about the most funnest thing I can think of is drawing up the Enemies List!

Since we are in a season of vicious intraparty struggle, we need an enemies list that suits the times.  I will get the ball rolling, and hopefully you'll jump in with additions and comments.

One November, when I was living in the brush country of deep South Texas, I began to notice a lot of small jets on approch to a little municipal airport.  What's going on? I asked.
It's hunting season, I was told. The guy said it happened every year.  In fact, he said he met Brett Favre in the local bar the previous week.
The deer grow big in Duval and Brooks and Webb County.  Deer hunters want to come down and kill one.

Of Thee I Cling

I Can't Believe I'm Not Bitter!

Clingons!

The Bitter End

Corporal Clinger

Marc Cooper, Mayhill flower's editor at Huffpo, has posted an in-depth explanation of the story which has raised such a storm.

LINK

As the editorial coordinator of HuffPost’s OffTheBus project, I had the privilege and responsibility of doing the final edit andobamaguns.jpg ultimately approving for publication the web story Friday that has set off a firestorm over Barack Obama’s remarks about a "bitter" attitude that sometimes plagues economically-pressed small towns. Specifically those in Pennsylvania.

L.A. Times

Charlton Heston, the Oscar-winning actor who achieved stardom playing larger-than-life figures including Moses, Michelangelo and Andrew Jackson and went on to become an unapologetic gun advocate and darling of conservative causes, has died. He was 84.

A good man.

People who support the death penalty and oppose abortion are inconsistant.  People who are pro-choice and oppose the death penalty are not inconsistant. Discuss among yourselves.

Every issue in governance can be reduces to a assertion of individual or group rights.  Where does that leave democracy? Discuss among yourselves.

As you probably know, the once-prosperous African nation of Zimbabwe is now  a basket case.  Female life expectancy is down to 34, unemployment is 80%, and inflation runs at a mind-boggling annual rate of 150,000-200,000 percent.  (Stop a minute and think about that.)

Needless to say, such figures would spell doom for an incumbent in any democratic country.  But not for Comrade Bob.  He allowed an election to go forward, apparantly confident that he could steal it.

Sometimes I wear a tuxedo for no particular reason.

People seek out and value my advice.

I write in the morning, and spend the balance of my day fly-fishing or restoring antique furniture.

I feel equally at home in Paris, France and Paris, Texas.

The Wright Stuff

Wright from the Beginning

Just Hang A Wright At Fox

The Wrights of Man

Wright And Wrong

Two Wrights Don't Make A Wrong

Wright's Violations

Human Wright

Wright Turn On Red

I don't believe you.

The statements that Rev. Wright made that are the cause of this controversy were not statements I personally heard him preach while I sat in the pews of Trinity or heard him utter in private conversation. When these statements first came to my attention, it was at the beginning of my presidential campaign. I made it clear at the time that I strongly condemned his comments. But because Rev. Wright was on the verge of retirement, and because of my strong links to the Trinity faith community, where I married my wife and where my daughters were baptized, I did not think it appropriate to leave the church.

Let me  be specific.  I don't believe the following sentence:

When these statements first came to my attention, it was at the beginning of my presidential campaign.